Site Search Navigation

Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

Supported by

Obama Ad Buy Totals $1.4 Million in Six States

By Jeremy W. Peters April 3, 2012 3:43 pmApril 3, 2012 3:43 pm

The Obama campaign is putting nearly $1.4 million behind its newest commercial, getting the president’s message on the air in some of the nation’s largest television markets, according to figures provided by a Republican strategist who tracks media purchases.

The ad buy covers six battleground states — Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Nevada and Virginia — and includes cities like Tampa, Fla.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Des Moines; and Cleveland.

The ad will be shown on both broadcast and cable television.

While the Republican presidential candidates and their “super PACs” have spent tens of millions of dollars on political ads this year, the president’s campaign has for the most part seemed content to let his rivals hammer each other while remaining relatively quiet. This is only the third television advertisement Mr. Obama has released this year.

But it is the second ad the Obama campaign has produced in which it defends the president’s energy policy, an area where he appears particularly vulnerable heading into the general election. With gas prices nationwide approaching an average of $4 a gallon, energy has taken a position at the forefront of the presidential campaign.

The new ad ties Mitt Romney to “Big Oil” and tries to paint them both as hostile to the president’s efforts to improve automobile fuel efficiency standards and produce more sources of sustainable energy.

No fewer than three anti-Obama advocacy groups have hit the president on the issue of energy in their own ad campaigns. The latest is a 30-second ad from the American Energy Alliance titled “Nine Dollar Gas,” which blames the Obama administration for soaring fuel prices.

President Obama drew criticism on Thursday when he said, “we don’t have a strategy yet,” for military action against ISIS in Syria. Lawmakers will weigh in on Mr. Obama’s comments on the Sunday shows.Read more…